Another US Crude Oil Production Record Set This Past Week -- August 22, 2019

The background to this note involves a lot of history about how the US government comes up with their statistics. If you've been following the blog for awhile you are probably aware of the "inside" story. If not, the story will become clear(er) over time.

From a reader:

The lower 48 set a production record this week, but I doubt that anyone mentioned it.

The output from wells in the lower 48 states rose by 100,000 barrels per day to a rounded record high of 12,000,000 barrels per day, while there was a 94,000 barrels per day decrease to 339,000 barrels per day in Alaska's oil production, and hence the final rounded national production total that everyone cites was unchanged at 12,300,000 barrels per day.

Most of this year, Alaska was adding 500k to the national total. I have no idea what happened in there this week, unless they had a hurricane we didn't hear about.

My hunch: polar bears are turning off the oil pumps to do their part to prevent global warming. 

This information will be repeated in greater detail and explanation this next Sunday, at "Focus On Fracking," linked at the sidebar at the right.

See EIA data at this link. And, yes, 12,300,000 million bopd for the week ending 8/16/2019. I believe those are "estimates."

This EIA data is apparently "actual" production data but such data lags a couple of months.